This summer, we have been inundated with a tidal wave of right wing mendacity -- almost all of it so preposterous that even the Main Stream Media occasionally debunks it. Of course, this debunking only occurs after the lies have been repeated countless times.
This is nothing new.
About 60 years ago, Joe McCarthy made a speech while waving a sheaf of papers that he said displayed the names of 205 "Communists" who were currently employed by the United States State Department. John F. Kennedy was greeted by the accusation of "Treason" in a full page ad in the Dallas newspaper on the morning of the last day of his life. Five years ago, the Swift Boat liars managed to take center stage in a Presidential campaign by making the bizarre claim that the US Department of Defense handed John Kerry some medals that he never earned.
Four years ago, Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, and our incompetent Republican President dithered and postured while immense suffering overwhelmed hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Watching that catastrophe moved me to post these words on Democratic Underground:
The Second Civil War started in Miami Dade County when a farcical band of Republican apparatchiks disrupted the counting of ballots by the force of their own blubbery persons -- coupled with the explict threat to bring in "Cubans" as re-inforcements.
At the time Jim Baker was on TV almost every day, laying the ideological groundwork for the Restoration of Rule By The Bush Family Business. Baker pompously, ponderously and sarcastically expounded the post-modern conception that there is no such thing as Objective Reality -- that a person could not be trusted to look at a cardboard ballot without letting her "bias" determine her assessment of which Presidential candidate should get credit for it.
This premise that power determines reality shortly thereafter became the per curiam rationale for putting Bush into the White House. Rather than applying the rule of law (which incidentally, with a little intellectual effort, could have supported their decision) the Supreme Court just blew an ultra-cynical 5-4 raspberry at Al Gore and the majority of Americans who did not want Bush to become President.
Throughout that miserable month of political disputation in Florida, we saw a continuation of that faux-riot in Miami: a relentless array of shouters from talk radio; Fox News; and the internet; plus ever larger numbers of Mainstream Media voices -- all expressing the exact same message at the exact same time.
Having been a professional labor organizer my whole life, I have to tip my hat to the iron discipline and rock solid unity of this Chanting Machine. I really would not want to emulate this inherently fascistic technique, but we would all be blind fools not to recognize the depth, breadth and perfect unity of the right wing organization assembled behind the Bush Family Business.
In our own disorganized way, liberals, progressives and leftists have tried to come to terms with this Leviathan -- only to get our ass kicked at every turn.
The one dimension that makes absolute unity possible for them and what makes anything remotely resembling unity impossible for us is what Baker expounded in Florida -- their denial of Objective Reality. To them "reality" is a party line dictated from above. For us objective reality is a dozen mutually exclusive interpretations of how smart or dumb is the individual named George Walker Bush.
Our belief in the significance of Objective Reality leads us into holding our end of a perpetual "debate" in which we all speak our own minds while they spout off their Party Line in unison.
Our belief in Objective Reality also leads us to pine for a "Free Press" that adheres to the principle of objective journalism.
Well, there is no escape from the challenge they pose. It is a frontal attack on the premise of democracy and constitutional government.
This past week brings the grim reality to a crisis point. The hurricane is a dose of Objective Reality that no amount of chanting in unison can alter. Caught without his brain trust at his side, the grinning pestilence of George Walker Bush did not know what to do about the human catastrophe that engulfed a wide swath of the USA.
People suffered and died while Bush ate cake and strummed a guitar.
By the end of the week, the game plan was finally cobbled together and you will hear it blasting out of your cable TVs and car radios this week -- it was Somebody Else's Fault.
It does not matter that this is absurd on its face. It does not matter that, even if absolutely true, it would not absolve Bush or FEMA or the DHS of their dithering under fire. It does not even matter that this shows when Al Qaeda does launch its next attack within the USA, our government will go into Instant Blame Game mode rather than address the human suffering caused by terror.
No, we are dealing with a tightly knit organization that has no patriotism, no respect for law and nothing but contempt for truth. Contempt for the truth is what put them in power and it is what keeps them in power.
What we need more than anything else is to realize that there is no reasoning with these people. I hate writing these words. It contradicts everything I have believed in my 52 years on this planet.
I remain a pacifist and I firmly believe that a non-violent campaign to restore Respect For Truth will have a chance to succeed while violence would cause more grief and accomplish nothing.
But until we realize that the other side is fighting a civil war AGAINST US -- particularly the people of color among US -- we will continue to be frustrated, disorganized and, at bottom, losers.
That is what sustains them, by the way. The only belief they have on this earth is that they are winners and we are losers.
Since I wrote those words, we have been winning the elections -- but nothing else. The losers continue to dominate the news, and the winners cannot unify around anything meaningful.
No one should be surprised that their one and only tactic is to shout lies in unison. That is how they have always operated. So long as our response is to get indignant and tell each other what liars they are, they will continue to win, even as they lose elections.
We need to wake up. It is long past the time to wake up and face the reality that screams at us.
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